The Golden Crystal - Book Trailer from Nick Thacker on Vimeo.
The Golden Crystal by Nick ThackerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
After a failed mission in Afghanistan, Captain Bryce Reynolds finds himself being offered two million dollars, and treatment for his ailing mother, to protect James Whittenfield Jr. and his research company for the next six months. The deal seems too good to be true, and everything quickly turns bad when the Whittenfield Laboratories headquarters in Washington DC is breached by a team from Whittenfield's rival, Dr. Tanning Vilocek, the owner of Vilocorp. A bid to head off Vilocek soon turns into a race around the world as both teams both work against and with each other to gain the crystal for their own purposes.
Two things The Golden Crystal reminded me of straight off: Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).
I read The Da Vinci Code way back in college, so I can't really compare writing styles and the like; my memory doesn't extend that far. The similarity I felt mainly stemmed from the way Thacker pulls from legends, myths and ancient history, as well as mathematics (the golden mean), to weave together a compelling story of two men's race to obtain the magical Golden Crystal (which is where Indiana Jones comes in). It's an interesting blend.
The book caught my attention early on, though it seemed to slow in the middle as Thacker digressed into little history lessons along the way. I suppose those "lessons" were useful to the story and the plot, but maybe it made the novel lose a little something as a whole. Nick really picked up the pace towards the end, culminating in a very exciting ending.
All in all, a very well-done debut!
I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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The Golden Crystal is available from Amazon.
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